While he devolved into something of a caricature late in his career, Ken Shamrock’s long-lasting contributions to the sport in its formative days should not be swept under the rug with the passage of time.
“The World’s Most Dangerous Man” won 17 of his first 20 professional bouts, laid claim to the openweight King of Pancrase title and reached the semifinals of two Ultimate Fighting Championship tournaments and the final of another before winning the inaugural UFC superfight belt. Shamrock was 25-8-2 by the time his rivalry with Tito Ortiz was ignited, and though he went 0-3 in his trilogy with “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy,” their seemingly genuine hatred for one another pushed business to unprecedented heights for the Las Vegas-based promotion. The sport passed Shamrock by, however, as he lost 11 of his last 14 bouts, nearly all of them in lopsided fashion. He made his final appearance under the Bellator MMA flag in 2016, when his third encounter with Royce Gracie resulted in a controversial technical knockout loss at Bellator 149. Shamrock announced his retirement some three years later.
As his accomplishments fade in history’s shuffle, a look at some of the numbers that accompanied Shamrock throughout his journey:
58: Years of age for Shamrock, who was born on Feb. 11, 1964 in Warner Robins, Georgia.
22: Shamrock wins by submission, accounting for 79% of his career total (28). His methods of choice: five heel hooks, four arm-triangle chokes, four rear-naked chokes, two Achilles locks, two kimuras, two kneebars, one guillotine choke, one forearm choke and one armbar. Shamrock holds three other wins by knockout (11%) and three more by decision (11%).
44: Seconds needed for Shamrock to dispatch Takaku Fuke with a rear-naked choke under the Pancrase banner in 1993. It was the only sub-minute finish on his resume.
53: Rounds started by Shamrock as a mixed martial artist. He went the distance on seven different occasions and carried a 3-2-2 record in those bouts.
9: Consecutive victories for Shamrock between Sept. 9, 1994 and March 10, 1995. It was his longest run of uninterrupted success.
2: Stalemates on the Shamrock ledger. He fought to a time-limit draw with Gracie at UFC 5 on April 7, 1995 and did the same with Oleg Taktarov at UFC 7 five months later.
52: Significant strikes by which Shamrock was outlanded across his final three appearances inside the Octagon. He absorbed 52 such strikes while offering zero in return in blowout losses to Tito Ortiz (twice) and Rich Franklin.
5: Countries in which Shamrock plied his mixed martial arts trade. He went 18-6 in Japan, 10-8-2 in the United States, 0-1 in Australia, 0-1 in South Africa and 0-1 in England.
15: Minutes fought by Shamrock in a unanimous decision over journeyman Johnathan Ivey at a USA Mixed Martial Arts event on Oct. 16, 2010. It went in the books as the final victory for “The World’s Most Dangerous Man.”
345: Combined wins between the 13 men—Gracie (twice), Ortiz (three times), Franklin, Minoru Suzuki (twice), Kevin Ferguson, Mike Bourke, Pedro Rizzo, Robert Berry, Kazushi Sakuraba, Don Frye, Kazuyuki Fujita, Dan Severn and Masakatsu Funaki—who defeated Shamrock. The boast a cumulative .693 winning percentage at 345-150-10.
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